-The Hindu Business Line ‘Zero-budget natural farming’ sounds fine in principle, but is vague on many specifics By announcing a push to zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF) in the Budget, the Centre seemed to have reiterated its policy support for non-chemical-based farming methods. However, ZBNF has kicked up something of a stir, not least because of the positions taken by the individual associated with it, Subash Palekar. Palekar has gone to great lengths...

-The Indian Express Census 2011 counted 14.2 crore migrants in the decade preceding it, intra-district to inter-state. Women moved for marriage, men for work, economic reforms drove the change, and Surat emerged as No. 3 destination while Chennai fell far behind. In a country with a long and often violent history of sons-of-the-soil politics, migration is a politically fraught issue. From the attacks on south Indians in Mumbai in the 1960s...

-The Hindu * Will this form of chemical-free agriculture increase farmers’ incomes? Where are the pitfalls? The story so far: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman thrust zero budget farming into the spotlight in the first Budget speech of the 17th Lok Sabha earlier this month, calling for a “back to the basics” approach. She said, “We need to replicate this innovative model through which in a few States, farmers are already being trained...

-National Herald Agriculture, food and trade policy expert Devinder Sharma writes: “My understanding is that only agriculture can reboot the economy, sustain millions of livelihoods, and reduce global warming.” At a time when Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz says that neo-liberalism is ‘dead and buried’, and the world as a result is increasingly grappling with the gigantic problems of rising unemployment, gnawing inequality and climatic change reaching a tripping point, agriculture alone has...

-The Economic Times Zero-budget farming is being promoted in several areas as a low-cost, natural alternative to prevalent practices of heavy use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. NEW DELHI: The government has asked the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), India’s top farm research institution, to conduct a study on the efficacy zero budget farming (ZBF) results before its nationwide rollout. NITI Aayog member and agricultural economics and policy expert Ramesh Chand...